[scribus] Character palette: Usage?

Louis Desjardins louis.desjardins at gmail.com
Thu Feb 2 16:31:27 UTC 2012


2012/2/2 ale rimoldi <ale.comp_06 at xox.ch>

> hi jluc,
>
> > I dont understand why the choosed glyph is inserted in default font
> > and not in choosed font. I dont see any reason to do so.
> >
> > Inserting a default font characted when the user asks for a dingbat
> > glyph is as weird as inserting a red glyph when the user asks for a
> > green glyph.
>
> imo, this is only a small part of scribus' weirdness with local
> formatting.
>
> i think that there is a need for somebody going through all the cases
> and preparing a proposal on how things could be improved.
>
> imo, it should be a well thought concept, not just a list of requests.
> it should contain an explicit analysis of all corner cases.
> the solutions are probably not simple and even if everybody sees that
> there is a problem here, i understand that the team waits for a better
> solution being defined before starting programming something new.
>
> in this specific case one of the questions which are open is:
> now, you've inserted a glyph from the palette and it has correctly been
> set to zapfdingbats. if you then type the next char in the frame
> itself, which font should the new char have? the one you were using in
> the frame or the one applied from the "insert glyph" dialog? i guess
> that -- most of the time -- you want to continue with the font you had
> in the frame...
>
> this is how non programmers can really help improving scribus: by
> producing exact and detailed specifications of how the scribus should
> behave.
> the programmers work is then much simpler!
>

That is a pretty interesting explanation and we should keep it somewhere
near the bugtracker or on the website in a "How to help" page or something
simillar.

That said, I have a clue for that particular issue.

What people can expect as for the next glyphs is debatable as we already
see.

I see that there is at least 2 ways:
a. next glyph is in the font of the one that was just introduced (or
modified — read below)
b. next glyph is as the font that is used in the surrounding characters.

For me, the behavior should be exactly the same as if someone had just
changed a font for a specific glyph or for a word (say it's been put to
italic): any following character typed into the text should be as the font
that is immediately at the left. The breaking point is the space. So, inf
you put your cursor on the right of that modified glyph, the new character
keeps the font on left. The behavior would probably need to be consistent
with the reading direction of the language used.

In other words, I suggest to go for a).

To me, b) cannot be used because it is going to be most impractible to let
Scribus determine what would be the default font as there may be lots in a
text frame.

Louis



> don't get me wrong, "just" pointing to problems, bugs an wishes is also
> something very useful, but there are chances that it then will be
> lying on a dusty pile of tasks, reserved for the future :-)
>
> hth
> a.l.e
>
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-- 
Louis Desjardins
mardigrafe.com
libregraphicsmeeting.org
+1 514 994 9351 (Cell)
+1 514 934 1353 ext. 121 (Montréal)
HAE / EDT GMT -5
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